Tuesday, September 18, 2018

But how will my Isheean character react to things? (Traveller Tuesday #13)

Now that we've established the details of political, religious, and legal life on Ishee. We can start constructing an image of the slightly subtler elements of Isheean culture. We already know that it hosts a Tourist Attraction, is Progressive, and believes strongly in access to high technology as a basic right. That last is true, by the way, even outside of its champion government in the Guild-State of the Rose Brothers.

First up is the Progressiveness of the world. We already know that it's neither Conservative or Reactionary in attitude, but it could be either Radical or Progressive. Taking into account the Dice Modifier from Ishee's population, I find that gives us a range of 15, with only a 1-in-15 chance of a Radical attitude (I'm just slicing off the half of the table that is inappropriate, after applying the modifier, and re-figuring the chances from there. Using random.org to roll a d15, I am unsurprised that my 3 doesn't result in a Radical attitude. This attitude is then paired with an action, describing not what the Isheeans think and feel but how they actually behave. We roll an 8 on a flat 2d6 and determine that Isheean culture has an Advancing action. Isheeans believe change to be good and healthy, and are generally accepting of promising new ideas. They've a fair measure of drive and definite measurable progress can be seen, especially in their technology.

Isheean aggressiveness is also subject to a flat 2d6 roll. In this case, our 7 means the world culture is Unaggressive in attitude, and another 2d6 gives us an extreme of a 12 and a Conciliatory action. Putting the two together, we find that Isheeans prefer compromise to the use of force and even go so far as to refrain from building any significant military might. They will do anything to avoid military confrontation. This probably explains both the intense reaction of TCI towards the enemy agents on Ishee and their preference for restricting their own rights and movement over building a large army.

We've reached the point where we can't further develop Isheean culture without understanding how connected it is to the rest of the galaxy. Yep, its Starport, which is a rather disappointing Class E thanks to a roll of 3 on 2d6. I'd say Ishee represented something more of a cross between a monastic retreat, an isolated workshop free from distraction or limitation, a societal sandbox in which it is easy to cause and measure paradigm shift, and Burning Man to the Rose Brothers who founded it. They resisted building a bigger Starport because they never wanted to be bothered much by outsiders. Their FutureShockFest became a subsectorwide phenomenon without their wanting it to, and so they never improved the Starport to accommodate its crowds. To the offworders, this gives it the advantage of being free to berth here at the cost of a lack of sales of ship repair of any sort or of the drugs required for the biological elements of the noetic drive to function properly (a.k.a., “fuel”). There might be a pirate base, but a 4 is a far cry from the 12 needed for that (bUWP α-3D-0704-? (α Greve-Eau Pleine-Bishop Scheumack-Ishee)/E???774-?/X/??/Em).

2d6+5 will tell about Ishee's global extensiveness. The resultant 16 tells us that Isheean culture is highly fragmented among itself. The divisions between and within its cultures, states, political parties, and faiths are deep, loud, and frequent. Dissension is the rule. Well, considering the general pacifism on the planet, perhaps “long” might be a better word than “loud”. Resonant with the previous determinations, a 9 on 2d6+2 means that Ishee tuns an aloof face to the events of galactic society and otherworldly events. Isheeans react coolly, even to the point of occasional unfriendliness, to offworlders, seeing them as technologically prurient gawkers interested more in the spectacle of technology and science than in understanding its effects on society. In the Marches and TCI, a concurrent narrative is that outsiders might be there to act against the interests of the state, the populace, and the rulers, a suspicion that anyone could be an Imperial spy, Company operative, or alien instigator. Either way, the offworlders are likely to interfere out of incompetence fear, or malice, and no Isheean likes that idea. Isheean merchants tend to think of them as rubes too dazzled by the flash and sparkle of fancy technology to be very protective of their feccu (Fractally Encoded Company-backed Cryptocurrency Units).

In fact, how uniformly is law enforced on Ishee, anyway? That's a 2d6 roll on a table, which results in an 8. In all four states, the law is evenly and equally applied to every member of the populace. Just barely, though ~ repressive TCI in particular is risking a fall into a less even-handed (and incorrupt) style of governance.

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